Domain Renewal Scams: IDNS Canada (Updated for 2020)

You may or may not have gotten a letter from a company called iDNS Canada (also known as Internet Domain Name Services). iDNS is a company that preys on people who don’t fully understand the domain registration service by sending letters in the mail about their expiring domain and requests payment. This scam is very similar to the one that went a couple of years ago by the Domain Registry of Canada (DROC).

What this company is actually doing is scamming money from you and trying to transfer your domain away from your current provider, in order to try and scam more money from you later on. Here are some important things to note so you can avoid being scammed when it comes to your domain:

• Real domain registration providers will never send you a letter in the mail.

• Report any letters you receive to ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)

• Report all letters you receive for all domains to the Canadian Spam Reporting Centre

iDNS is not the first, or last, company to try doing this. If you are ever unsure about something, always ask your web provider first. Remember, if you are a Sync client, and we manage your domain, you will never lose it. So, you can sit back and relax because we’ll take care of it.

——

January 2020 Update:

The iDNS scam has heat up again to kick off the new year and new decade. Some people are reporting tele-calls about this and others are reporting that iDNS is disguising itself as GoDaddy to trick the majority of domain holders.

Our recommendation is to always contact your domain provider if you get unsolicited messages from them. 9 out of 10 times it’ll be a scam.

Also, it’s worth noting that there are always subtle variations when a company is trying to copy another. If something feels off, look at the emails side-by-side.

——

Example of the type of letter iDNS sends out: